The Measure of Science: The pH Revolution
Arnold Orville Beckman was born on April 10, 1900, in Cullom, Illinois, a small farming town where his father was a blacksmith. From a young age, Beckman displayed a passion for science, spurred by a chemistry book he found in his attic at nine years old. This sparked a lifelong love affair with chemistry that would lead him to revolutionize scientific instrumentation.
Beckman’s academic journey took him to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1922 and an M.S. in Physical Chemistry in 1923. To fund his education, he played piano for silent films. After a brief stint at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York, he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in photochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which he completed in 1928.
While at Caltech, Beckman became an assistant professor but soon found himself drawn to the practical applications of science. In 1934, a friend from his undergraduate days, who was now working in the California citrus industry, approached him with a problem: how to measure the acidity of lemon juice accurately. The result was the invention of the first commercially viable electronic pH meter, originally called the “acidimeter.”
This invention was so successful that Beckman left academia in 1935 to focus on his burgeoning enterprise, founding National Technical Laboratories, which later became Beckman Instruments, Inc. The pH meter was a game-changer, allowing for precise measurement of acidity in various industries, from food to pharmaceuticals, impacting everything from soil analysis to diagnostics in medicine.
Beckman’s ingenuity didn’t stop there. He went on to invent the DU spectrophotometer in 1940, which became a staple in labs worldwide for its ability to measure the concentration of substances in solutions. During World War II, his work extended into military applications, including developing instruments for the Manhattan Project.
After the war, Beckman continued to innovate, introducing instruments like the oxygen analyzer and the Spinco ultracentrifuge, expanding his company’s influence into medical diagnostics and biotechnology. His firm was instrumental in the development of Silicon Valley, as he funded one of its first semiconductor companies, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory.
Upon retiring in 1983, Beckman and his wife Mabel turned their attention to philanthropy. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation has been a significant benefactor to scientific research and education, particularly in chemistry and biology. Beckman lived to see his inventions become foundational tools in science and his philanthropy support advancements in research.
Arnold O. Beckman died on May 18, 2004, at the age of 104, leaving behind a legacy of scientific innovation that transformed how research is conducted, and a commitment to education that continues to inspire new generations of scientists.
Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Beckman
https://www.beckman-foundation.org/arnold-beckman
https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/arnold-o-beckman
https://magazine.caltech.edu/post/origins-birth-of-the-ph-meter